The Only Exception
by starwarsfreak95
Summary: Jace is waiting for Clary to get home after school and begins to be nosy. Songfic


She wasn't home yet. He was waiting in her room for her. That's where her mom had sent him. For some reason her mom trusted him more. It might have had something to do with the fact that kissing Clary ended in literal fireworks. It was darned inconvenient sometimes, especially when she wore that blue sweater. It clung to her every subtle curve and showed far too much of her beautiful, pale, freckled skin. At least it did for someone who was trying not to kiss her so she wouldn't get hurt. Jace scowled and looked around for something to distract him from this line of thought. His eyes lit on Clary's ipod, sitting next to him on the bed. He maneuvered the plugs into his ears and played with the four digit password for a moment before he keyed in his own birthday. He smiled softly at this success. He noticed the title of the song she'd been listening to- The Only Exception. Intrigued, he started it over so he could hear it for himself.

_When I was younger I saw my daddy cryand curse at the wind._

Jace was a small child again. It was dark, he was supposed to be sleeping. He was roused out of bed by a sound. He crept to the window to find his father weeping. He was crying a word, a single word. "Jocelyn," he said, "Jocelyn, I'm sorry." Then it changed, "Jocelyn! How dare you! How dare you betray me! How dare you take her from me! You dare! I will find you!" Jace had shivered and gone back to bed, fearful.

_He broke his own heart and I watchedas he tried to reassemble it. _

Jace knew now that Valentine had done it to himself. And no matter how terrible Valentine was, remembering him that way, brokenhearted and hurt, broke Jace's heart similarly.

_And my momma sworethat she would never let herself forget._

Jace knew that Jocelyn, who he'd thought his mother, had refused to allow herself to love another. And she had done so. Until Luke had come along.

_And that was the day that I promisedI'd never sing of love if it does not exist. _

Valentine had taught him that he to love was to be weak. To love was to destroy. He hadn't doubted Valentine either. Not until she came along.

_But darling,You are the only are the only are the only are the only exception._

Clary. She was his only exception. She broke down his walls when no one else could. When no one else thought they could be broken through. She healed his heart, broken by the man he thought was his father. She was the one who was different. The only exception.

_Maybe I know somewheredeep in my soulthat love never lasts._

That was Valentine's words. His ideas. He planted that seed. Jace believed him. Love never lasted. To love was to destroy. It never lasts.

_And we've got to find other waysto make it keep a straight face._

Jace did this. He found other girls. He became what the mundies called a player- he played the field. Girls were conquests. He won their affection and dropped them like rocks seemingly without a care.

_And I've always lived like thiskeeping a comfortable distance._

Even Alec and Izzy couldn't breach the careful walls that he'd built around himself, and they'd known him forever.

_And up until now I've sworn to myselfthat I'm content with loneliness. _

_Because none of it was ever worth the risk. _

Every time he sat in another corner making out with another meaningless girl, every motel room, every conquest, a little voice in the back of his mind asked him if this was it. If this was right. If being this cut off and alone, being this lonely, was worth not risking his feelings. The rest of his mind told that part to shut up and that this was all that there was to life. Living in the moment. But he still wondered.

_Well you are the only are the only are the only are the only are the only exception. _

Clary was the one who was different. The one who actually talked back. Who had a sense of humor to match his. Who wouldn't put up with his crap. Who really cared. Who wanted him for more that what he could give her. Who loved him truly.

_I've got a tight grip on reality,but I can't let go of what's in front of me here._

Logic and previous experience told Jace that she wouldn't want him forever. That one day, that special look she gave him, wouldn't be his anymore. That she'd lose interest. Like everyone else. But his heart said otherwise. His heart said that she'd love him forever. Different from the rest.

_I know you're leaving in the morningwhen you wake me with some kind of proof it's not a dream. _

He knew she'd think the night before he died the first time was a dream. So he'd left her the Morgenstern ring. So she would remember him there. And know it was real.

_You are the only exception._

_You are the only exception._

_You are the only exception._

_You are the only exception._

Not every girl would have had the strength that Clary did. She had killed him in hopes that she'd save him. He knew that she blamed herself, but really, there was nothing to be blamed for. She had saved his soul.

_You are the only exception._

_You are the only exception._

_You are the only exception._

_You are the only exception._

Clary was his one and only. She was the only exception to the hurts and walls that had governed him before.

_And I'm on my way to , and I'm on my way to believing._

He was on his way to believing. In himself. He already believed in her.

"Jace?" Jocelyn's voice broke into his reverie.

"Yes?" He answered politely.

"Clary has to stay after school for something. You want to leave that here and come back?"

"Sure, thanks."

"No problem," she said with a smile. Jace smiled back and bent to write something to attach to the bloodred rose he'd brought.

When Clary came home that night she smiled as she saw the bloodred rose on her bed entangled in her ipod headphones with a note that said, "To my Only Exception" in her boyfriend's familiar, hurried writing.


End file.
